Sunflowers
by RY16
Summary: When the person you love, loses her memories, what do you do? / Katya runs and runs and runs until she doesn't anymore, and actually reaches out to him. [DoflamingoxOC]


**A/N: This story has been in my head for a week now and I just had to write it. It was pretty fun to write to be honest and the summary is terrible... but oh well. Originally I thought to make it a mutlichaptered fic but i can't think of a continuation so... If I have any mistakes then say something, ok don't be rude. Enjoy and review, I guess.**

* * *

 **Sunflowers**

Katya brought her knees to her chin, her arms curling around them as she tried to occupy less space as possible. The damp soil sent chills up her spine, the hairs on her arms standing on edge.

The girl remained still as ice, adrenaline flowing through her veins, keeping her alert. Her eyes darted back and forth between the sunflower stems. They swayed gently with the wind and Katya's feet grew numb but she dared not move an inch.

She could feel her heart thudding in her chest threatening to burst out. Her ears picked up the buzzing of bees and the swishing sounds the flowers made as they rub together in a sea of gold.

A sweet fragrance lingered in the air, even with the wind it was constant. It's soothing, and in other circumstances, Katya would love to spend more time savoring it.

There's shouting then. From left to right, they're everywhere. They shouted the same thing over and over again.

She brought her knees in tighter and closed her eyes, steadying her breathing. She was immobile and soundless among the large sunflower forest.

The shouting was closer now. Sweat beads prickled down her forehead as she murmured a prayer.

Katya could almost feel their words reverberating through her chest as if they were her own. Her heart drummed in her ears and she clasped a hand to her mouth to muffle her breathing. Her eyes shut tightly and she buried her face in her knees.

She was tiny ball among the thousands of sunflowers. They could not find her, could not hope to find her, could not, could not, _could not_! The words repeated in Katya's head like a mantra.

A few feet in front of her she caught movement. Her eyes widened and she focused her gaze there. Slowly Katya shifted position so that she was kneeling on the soil, her hands planted on the ground and her feet ready to push her up if she needed to flee.

A pair of legs came into sight. This man was tall, Katya deduced as she couldn't see his waist despite the rather large sunflowers. He might not be able to see her, she pondered the thought for a moment but quickly dismissed it. They saw her heading this way and judging by the time between that and them coming here – it's logical for one to think Katya was hiding amongst the flowers. Particularly one with her small built.

The sunflowers were large enough that they had to push them apart to see the ground. But underneath the flower, the stems had enough space between them for someone small such as herself to crawl away undetected. Or at least so she hoped.

Katya gave one last quick glance at the pair of legs and took a deep breath. Exhaling soundlessly she whipped her head around and made her way, avoiding to brush even a single leaf.

After a while, she wiped the sweat from her brows with the back of her hand. Her fingernails were filthy with dirt and her palms and knees filled with scratches from small rocks in her path. She wasn't sure how long it'd been. Minutes, hours… The shouting was a constant and so was her view. Wherever Katya looked was the same. She tried staying on the same direction but soon she would encounter them again and had to change course.

Her throat was dry, her lips cracked. She sipped a drop of residual drop of water from leaves here and there from the rain that wet the earth. But the drops were scarce as the sun peaked in the sky and the heat only kept rising. Her palms and knees throbbed from their wounds and from holding her weight, her feet and fingers growing colder by the minute.

Her dress ripped at some point and the rims were brown with dirt. Her ears tuned out now and then and she could only hear her shallow breaths.

Not long now, Katya told herself, not long before she's out of there. But soon she realized she truly was lost. She took a few turns too many. There is no sky, no sunlight in sight.

Katya stopped dead in her tracks and sat down.

What's the point?

She would never outrun them, they were too many and she was too tired. If she waited until nightfall she might've been able to leave the flower field but then what? Katya didn't know where she was or how she got to this place. Why on earth would she know how to leave?

Her lip quivered, a knot forming in her throat. Her eyes watered and spilled two tears. Katya let them roll down her cheeks and drip from her chin. She clutched at her stomach as a knot formed there too. Her chest heaved up and down and her breath quickened.

"Over there!" Katya's gaze darted in the direction the voice came from. There was a man on his four's pointing his index finger at her, his other arm swinging back and forth in the air to alert his comrades.

Fresh adrenaline pumping into her veins and heart thundering in her chest, Katya leapt to her feet and ran.

Her pursuer's cries grew louder behind her. Her eyes focused ahead in a tree in the center of the field. Right leg, left leg, right leg, left leg…. Her mind focused solely on running.

The way her body moved surprised her, her speed, her stamina... Katya felt like she could go on for miles.

A few feet before she reached the tree one of the men closed in on her. He was coming from her right side, her dominant side and he was as fast as her, of small built like her.

Both quickened their pace, evenly matched. They were about to run into each other now in a perpendicular line. She imagined him tackling her, which at this speed was the likely scenario and it played in her head on a loop.

He's coming, it's now or never, she thought. Three, two, one... It seemed to slow down in her head. He threw himself at her, his only thought to grab her, no concern for his safety whatsoever on his expression. Katya jumped then, aiming for the ground, rolling as her hands touched the soil. The momentum pushed her back to her feet and she darted off.

She grinned as she distanced herself from him, the image of a man landing on the ground on her mind, mentally praising herself for that dive roll.

Quickly she shook such thoughts away though, as more men came into her line of sight, ahead of her, coming at her diagonally from both sides.

What to do, what to do?

Katya made a brisk turn to the left and did all that she could do. She ran. Katya ran left because in every other direction certain doom awaited.

The shouting increased.

Louder, more desperate, but Katya didn't stop, she'd reached a point where she could not stop even if she wanted to.

So when the ground slipped from her feet, Katya's body fell forward off the cliff. She flayed her arms around aimlessly, the ground growing closer with each seco— and then everything went black.

 **…**

The yelling outside the door startled her awake.

She yawned and turned, clutching at her pillow with both her arms, smiling as she inhaled the scent of the pillow deeply and the sunlight hit her face. She felt warm and safe and wished she could never leave that bed again.

Wait a minute, she thought. …Pillow? Bed?

Katya's eyes shot open and she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

"What on earth?" The words left her lips low as whisper.

Memories from recent events flood back into her conscious mind, but Katya didn't panic still too dazed from sleep to do so.

She swallowed dry, examining her surroundings. Katya's in a simple room. The bed was large and covered in soft, white-cotton sheets with a large white duvet adorned with pink flowers on top of the sheets. The walls were of a light grey stone and besides that the room had a dark wooden armoire and two equally dark-wooden night stands.

A knock on the door brought her back to reality. The doorknob rotated with a creaking noise and a very large man walked in. His complexion was tan and his hair a golden blond. He wore a simple long-sleeved shirt with orange and brown stripped pants and a jacket of pink feathers draped over his shoulders.

He reached up to his face and pulled down his weird-shaped sunglasses. His eyes were strikingly blue and staring right into her own.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, still standing by the door.

Katya rose her knees to her chest and clutched at her ankles. "Fine," she said flatly.

"I…" the words got caught in his throat. His lips parted as if to continue but nothing came out. He hesitated to take the first step towards her, but slowly he trudged to the end of the bed. He sat with downcast eyes. "Why did you run away?"

Katya rested her chin atop her head and stared at her toes. She didn't know this man but he clearly did…

"I… Please, just tell me what I did wrong…" he said with a thick voice. Katya glanced at him. He gazed at her with brows knitted together, hunched over himself.

"I…," he sat up straight. "I don't know. I don't remember."

His frown deepened, his lips parted in confusion.

"I don't remember anything," she admitted.

Neither of them spoke for a while. The blond man had gotten up and walked back and ofrth in the room, gone up to the window and stare outside, gone to sit down and stare at the floor some more, rubbing the back of his head, his temples, sighing…

"Whe…." His head snapped back at her. "Where am I? Who are you?"

He cleared his throat. "My name is Doflamingo and this," he pointed out the window. "Is the Kingdom of Dressrosa."

"Doflamingo…Dressrosa," she tried wording. Nothing, nothing came back to her. She shook her head at him and tightened her knees against her chest. "Who…" she murmurs but quickly presses her lips into a thin line.

"Your name is Katya Boleva di Isolde. You were born on a Summer Island on the Grand Line. Your parents… your parents and brother are gone…But—

Out of nowhere sadness hits her, a familiar sadness… As if the pain of losing them was hitting her all over again. She was all alone…. "I'm alone," the tears welled up in her eyes. A knot formed in her stomach and her throat closes up, she can't breathe. "I'm— she gasped for her, clutching at her throat. Tears running down her cheeks, her vision a blur of colors. She shook, she shook so violently and uncontrollably, her chest heaving up and down, she couldn't breathe.

"It's okay, it's okay," he hurried to her side, sitting on the bed and reaching for her with open arms.

Katya slapped him away. "Don't touch me!" She shrieked. "I don't know you! Get away from me!" He stared at her wide-eyed, his lips pressed into a thin line as he stood.

She pulled herself back until she slipped off the bed on the other side and backed up until her back was glued at the cold, stone wall. "Get away from me!" She yelled again and slid down the rock into a curling position. "Get away from me," she sobbed, shaking her head. "Get away from me," this time the words leaving her lips as a whisper. Katya hid her face in her hands, her body rocking back and forth.

Her ears picked up his footsteps and she sobbed and sobbed until there was nothing left. When the horrible black-hole of despair and loneliness quelled inside her, she felt a numbness, a numbness in her mind like no other she'd ever felt. She no longer felt sad, or fear or angry. Nothing, indifferent.

She found a baggy dark green sweater and a pair of black elastic pants on the armoire. She snatched them from their place and locked herself in the bathroom. After rinsing her body through hot water she threw on her new-found clothes and decided it was time to explore this place she was being confined to.

She took a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her damp blonde hair was long, unpractical. Why would she ever wear it like that? She ran her fingers through it and smelled it. The shampoo smelled the same as the pillow... so that must've been her pillow. Her brows furrowed together in confusion. There wasn't anything in the room that indicated it was hers. It was too barren, too cold. Had someone brought her pillow... Katya pushed those thoughts away. Why's and What if's... Nothing good could come of those.

Katya dried her hair off with a towel and tiptoed her way to the door. As she neared the door, she remember it creaked so she pulled her sleeve down as to muffle the sound and rotated the doorknob slowly. Outside two men had their back towards her. They both wore the uniform as the ones from before. So... whoever put her in this room was the same person who ordered her captured. No doubt they were powerful whoever they were.

The blond crossed her mind. He asked her: Why did you run away from _me_?

Could he be that person? If he was this powerful he was threat to her but... somehow she hadn't felt that when she first met him... Well, when she burst into a sobbing mess he did, but now she was thinking more clearly. He'd tried to comfort her... Katya meant something to him, she mattered somehow...

At that point, Katya decided that finding out who this Doflamingo was and why he was so keen on keeping her inside this place would be in her best interest. But first, she'd have get rid of the two minions outside.

Quickly she opened the door completely and tiptoed back to the room. Returning to the bathroom, she grabbed the pole that held the curtains. With all her strength she pushed and pulled until it was loose. Dropping the shower curtains, she motioned to the room. The rod wasn't too heavy, but it wasn't too sturdy either. With some luck it would last long to render them both unconscious.

Bare foot as she was, she didn't really need to tiptoe, Katya realized and strolled right up to the men and with a swing knocked their senses out.

She dropped the bent shower rod on the floor next to them and took off in a sprint to the nearest corner. She grabbed her hair to keep it from falling forwards and took a peek around the corner.

Katya grinned, excited as she moved through corridors undetected. It was odd that such a big place would be unguarded. Seemed reckless to her.

"Perhaps, it will return soon. The matters of the head take time, Young Master," Katya froze in her tracks as she reached an intersections.

"I know," he said disgruntled.

She couldn't quite place the first disembodied voice but the second seemed like Doflamingo's. Katya had to make a choice. Go right, left or go back. If she went back, eventually she'd run into the two unconscious idiots but if she went on the wrong direction she was risking to get caught.

A thought crossed her mind. Katya dropped to knees and then lay flat on her stomach, pressing her ear to the ground. She shut her eyes tightly. Vibrations, she could feel them. Katya swiftly rose to her feet and dashed off to the path to the right. She wasn't entirely sure why she knew that would work but her instinct said it was a good idea.

Katya maintained her pace, peeking around every corner and checking for vibrations when she had to choose paths. After a while, she was out of breath, sweat dripping from her forehead, her cheeks flushed. She had no idea where she was going and by the looks of this place, she wasn't exactly finding a map anytime soon either.

She sat down cross-legged on the stone floor and placed her elbows on her knees, resting her head on her hands. She inhaled and exhaled deeply and quite loudly for a moment. She was beginning to think leaving that room might've not been such a good idea after all. She couldn't exactly go back now, didn't remember how either. "Damn it," she muttered and cursed herself inwardly for ever considering she was thinking clearly.

She should've stayed put. Where was she going anyway? She didn't remember a single thing besides her own name (and not even her full name, _he_ had to tell her that)! What if she could leave this building, where would she go? Whatever could happen couldn't be that bad. If Doflamingo or whoever had gone to the trouble of dressing her wounds, however small, and cleaning her up - then clearly they didn't wish her harmed. But they might now, she thought remembering the state of the two guards.

She covered her face with her hands and sighed. What had she done?

Out of nowhere, the ground shifted, it, it... it undulated. Katya would've stayed to admire the freaky phenomenon but huge stone waves were coming in her direction. She scrambled to her feet and sprinted in the opposite direction. Her heart racing in her ears, and she gasped for breath as her lungs seemed to go on strike and refuse to give her enough oxygen. She glanced back often, the waves still coming, the walls around beginning to morph as well. She tried to go faster, as she made a brisk turn to the right, her arm brushing on the wall. She barely felt the impact and the jolt of pain that followed as she kept putting distance between her and—

Katya screamed as she was lifted into the air by a stone hand grabbing hold of her leg. She screamed and squirmed but it solidified against her limb. She was pulled then, and Katya braced for the contact with the wall but the solid rock liquefied around her and engulfed her. She couldn't see, couldn't move and couldn't scream, she couldn't breathe!

Katya was dragged into a red-carpeted room by the morphing rock. She gasped for breath as it released her mouth and nose and kicked and thrashed around as it freed the rest of her body. She screamed and scrambled to her feet backing up as the melting man's features came into sight.

He laughed.

"What are you doing, Katya-sama? Young Master, doesn't want you wandering about the castle in your condition," he said.

Katya breathed laboriously, clutching at her arms. She shook her head. "STAY BACK," she screamed, glaring wide-eyes at the thing.

"What's wrong?"

"STAY BACK," she shouted again, her eyes darting around, searching for a weapon. The room was a library. Short for a few windows and doors, the walls were painted with books from top to bottom.

"Trebole," her head snapped at the window. Doflamingo, the first person she met, the only seemingly sane person had just waltzed in from the window.

"Can't you see she's scared of you? Leave us."

"But Young Master I-

A vein throbbed on his forehead. "Get out now!"

Her knees gave out under her and she crumbled to the floor, hugging herself. Katya stared at the scene playing in front of her. She wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be terrified or furious.

"Please," he faced her now, sat down cross-legged in front of her. Like before he took off his sunglasses and set them aside to show his eyes. "Let me explain."

"Who the hell are you!?" She blurted out, breathless with a throbbing arm and possibly having a mental breakdown - she was about as done as one could get. "What do you want from me!?"

He frowned. "I've told you, my name is-

"Your name is Doflamingo but WHO are you!?" She shouted.

"I am the King of this castle, the King of Dressrosa," he said matter-of-factly. "And I just want to keep you safe. You need to rest, you've been in an accident. I'll explain everything after you eat something and sleep for a while. Please."

That word made his offer appealing, made him sound safe, believable but she couldn't her instinct on everything.

"Why should I believe anything you say?" Katya retorted.

"I love you." A knot formed in her throat but Katya pressed her lips together tightly and swallowed dry, trying to keep tears from forming in her eyes. She was tired of crying, she didn't even know why she was crying.

"Why should I believe that?" She murmured.

He sighed and covered his face in his hands. "Because," he dropped his hands. Tears formed in the rim of his eyes, threatening to spill. He leaped to his feet and grabbed a book from the shelves and hurried back to her. "Here," he kneeled right in front of her. Katya fought the urge to run away from him and accepted what he handed her.

She glanced up at him before looking inside the book. He stared at her pleadingly. Katya dropped her gaze, unable to stare back at those blue eyes. She caressed the velvet cover. It was an album, she realized when she opened it. Her lips parted as she stared at the first photo she saw. It was a photo of the two of them, smiling happy, his arms wrapped around her waist and Katya... Katya had a baby in her arms.

Her lip trembled. "I don't remember this," she suddenly felt a rush of emotions flooding into her like before. She didn't remember any of it and still she felt so empty. "I don't remember," she shook her head.

"I know," tears dropped from his eyes and he clenched his fists at his side.

Katya felt an urge to, she couldn't help it, really. She reached up to his face and cleaned one of the tears, caressing his cheek with her hand. "Do I... Do I love you?"

He gave her a crooked smile and nodded.

His smile spread to her features. She felt like she could trust him then. Ridiculous, obviously. She couldn't remember anything about him or the baby in the photo. Still, it felt right, somehow, it felt like home.


End file.
